Saudi Arabia's domestic soccer scene has never been as front and center of the world game's attention as it is right now. Despite Lionel Messi opting to join Major League Soccer's Inter Miami, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Ever Banega and Ryad Boudebouz all now play in the Middle East while reputable managers like Nuno Espirito Santo, Pitso Mosimane, Dejan Stankovic, Giorgos Donis, Marius Sumudica and Cosmin Contra are also part of Saudi's talent push. It has not always been like this and Saudi Arabian soccer is enjoying its finest day in the sun to date.
We break down how that has been happening.
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Why are top players suddenly Saudi-bound?
In a word, investment. Massive amounts of money are being pumped into the Saudi game in an effort to match the country's ambitions for a top level soccer league. A reputable domestic competition not only puts Saudi Arabia on the map as a destination, it strengthens the national team in theory. Money being use to tempt players to play out the final year or two of their careers in the Middle East is nothing new, but the current push to land star names before their twilight years is a recent development and one which has enjoyed early success with Ronaldo and Benzema two superstar names which not even the short-lived Chinese Super League managed to attract.
Where does their money come from?
Wealthy individuals backing Saudi clubs is nothing new to the country nor to the regions, but Saudi Arabia's Public Invest Fund (PIF) recently buying 75% stakes in the four biggest topflight clubs is a very new approach. Ronaldo's Al-Nassr, Benzema's champions Al-Ittihad, historic powerhouse Al-Hilal and recently returned Al-Ahli are the clubs which now benefit from PIF backing which essentially means that talent can be acquired and then assigned to those clubs. This was the idea with Messi, was a key component in landing Benzema and Kante, while interest in high profile managerial names like Jose Mourinho would also be handled this way. Steven Gerrard to Ettifaq FC, though, is not under the PIF umbrella and is therefore less likely to be a superstar name destination.
PIF... I know them, right?
Through their ownership of Newcastle United, of course! PIF are none other than the group which owns 80% of the Magpies and are using their immense financial backing to help turn the Tyneside club into one of the Premier League's major players. Ironically, the Geordies have qualified for the UEFA Champions League for next season, yet are being lauded for Eddie Howe's ability to lead a relatively modestly assembled squad back into Europe. However, the expectation is that those sums will grow larger as the club grows and requires stronger players while a new shirt deal with Saudi events company Sela suggests that this might just be the start of Newcastle's own gold rush.
And that's not all. PIF are not limited to soccer either with the group also behind the controversial LIV Golf venture which has proven extremely controversial so far. Most recently LIV Golf merged with the PGA tour giving PIF significant control over professional golf the world over, though that merger is currently under Senate investigation.
Which other top players are in Saudi?
A number of recognizable star names were already playing in Saudi Arabia, even before Ronaldo's arrival with Ever Banega at Al-Shabab as well as Al-Nassr's Talisca, Luiz Gustavo, David Ospina, Alvaro Gonzalez and Pity Martinez. There was also Boudebouz, Modou Barrow and Ezgjan Alioski at Al-Ahli who just returned from their exile in the second tier, Al-Hilal's Moussa Marega, Matheus Pereira and Andre Carillo and champions Al-Ittihad were led to their first title since 2009 by Nuno with a team featuring Ahmed Hegazi. The talent might not be spread around all of the teams in the league for the moment, but the idea is to have a handful of strong teams duking it out for the title each season with the four star magnets the main protagonists in future title fights.
Has Saudi soccer always been a payday?
Yes, the Pro League has always been a league for players looking to end their careers with one final lucrative stint as part of a token gesture towards a country that has always harbored ambitions of being a bigger player than it actually is. However, what we are talking about now is a government-backed plan to bring the development of the Saudi game's reputation forward by years -- if not decades -- through this massive and orchestrated financial push for the sort of talent that puts the country on the soccer map as a serious non-European alternative. Saudi is not alone in having been considered as one lucrative final earner for veteran players either -- Qatar's QNB Stars League has also carved out a similar reputation.
Saudi World Cup 2030 bid
Which brings us nicely onto the fact that Saudi Arabia has taken a leaf out of Qatar's book to actually bid for the FIFA 2030 World Cup. They already have the AFC Asian Cup lined up for 2027, but Saudi's interest in the next World Cup after 2026 could include one or more co-hosts with Morocco, Egypt and Italy linked in the past and Egypt as well as Greece more recently. There is still time for those ideas to change and no winning bid will be unveiled before mid to late 2024 once the event has been joint-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
Is there domestic Saudi talent?
If you watched the 2022 World Cup, you would know that it is actually not that bad and that Saudi Arabia beat eventual winners Argentina in the group stage before bowing out heroically under Herve Renard. The French tactician might have moved on from the Green Falcons, but memories of that famous 2-1 victory will live on for years to come and the result proved to the world that Saudi talent is not to be sniffed at. The aim in the next few years will be to build on that base and to be even more competitive come 2026 and potentially to win the Asian title on home soil in 2027.
Any historic Saudi powerhouses?
Al-Hilal are the most titled club in Saudi soccer with 18 league wins and even with Al-Ittihad's latest success, they and Al-Nassr can only boast nine titles. That makes the city of Riyadh the hub of the domestic game with both Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr based there, not to mention Al-Shabab who have six titles of their own. Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli are Jeddah-based and have 12 titles between them thank to the latter's additional three while only two other clubs have won the Saudi including Gerrard's Ettifaq with two. Also factored into Al-Hilal's dominance is a record four AFC Champions League titles which is a record on the Asian club soccer scene. Al-Ittihad can add two more to that tally which makes Saudi Arabia the third strongest nation based on continental titles behind South Korea and Japan.
Can the Pro League actually catch Europe?
Ronaldo's arrival has clearly had an impact and Benzema as well as Kante arriving will only aid that further. It might not be the planned CR7-Messi rivalry, but it is still a collection of superstar names which should grow in the coming weeks and months as the Saudi game targets even more star names ahead of the new Roshn Saudi league season. As for bridging the gap with Europe, that will still take decades instead of just a few years -- especially regarding continental soccer. However, this current flurry of activity that we are witnessing proves that they mean business and if they talent starts to follow the money, that gap could shorten faster than expected.
